


More Than My Hometown

by local_troubled_writer



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Basically I was in the mood to hurt myself emotionally, Childhood Sweethearts, Hurt/Comfort, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Song fic, breaking up, bring your tissues, high school sweethearts, this fic is brought to you by Morgan Wallen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-25
Updated: 2020-11-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:47:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27709268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/local_troubled_writer/pseuds/local_troubled_writer
Summary: Harry and Louis have been inseparable ever since Harry's family moved in across the street.They grow up, grow together and to absolutely no one's surprise, finally, get together in Year 9.University is a whole other story...(Or the one where Harry and Louis are childhood best friends and high school sweethearts, but Harry can't leave their hometown and Louis can't stay.)
Relationships: Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson
Kudos: 23





	More Than My Hometown

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! I would like to formally blame Morgan Wallen for this fic so fuck you and your catchy songs, Morgan.  
> That being said, this is the song that inspired the fic(https://open.spotify.com/track/0eBXyY4SatzpE7opnzgXvz?si=JS819mpJQjyC0W5-yj24eQ). Hope you enjoy it!

Harry and Louis had been best friends from the moment they had locked eyes across the street. Harry was clutching a purple stuffed dinosaur and Louis had dropped his toy, waved enthusiastically, and tugged on Jay’s pant leg.

The next thing anyone knew, they were practically inseparable. They were in each other’s classes, appearing at shitty primary school recitals and plays, always attached at the hip when they could be.

Louis was the first person Harry told that he was gay. He had appeared on Louis’ doorstep, red-cheeked and teary-eyed. He had a crush on a boy in their Geography class in Year 7 and had tried to kiss him.

He had gotten slapped for his boldness.

While Louis held a sobbing Harry in his arms, he seethed. Louis had always been protective of Harry, helping him through his social anxiety, a steady weight that was always next to him. The next day, Louis reamed the boy out so loudly it caught the attention of their teacher. Louis had never felt so justified in getting detention.

It surprised no one when Louis quietly admitted that he liked boys to Harry late one night in Year 9, both of them on their backs in a clearing behind Harry’s house, shivering in the late November air. Harry silently linked their pinkies, promising him they’d always be best friends.

It was just a week later that Louis realized he liked Harry. The cuddles, the reassuring touches, the secret smiles between them suddenly meant so much more to him.

Louis kissed Harry for the first time on Christmas Eve, after Harry had gifted Louis tickets to see one of his favorite bands. Harry had immediately kissed him back, burying his hands in Louis’ hair and pressing him against the doorframe of Louis’ front door.

Breathless admissions and two very unsurprised sets of parents later, Harry had grinned and tugged him under the mistletoe, kissing him so soundly that Louis almost forgot to kiss back. Their friend group just smiled and changed money when they showed up after winter break holding hands.

Three years in a row, Harry and Louis were voted cutest couple by the school newspaper. Their mums joked that they didn’t know they were going to be family when Harry’s family had moved in across the street. Every school dance, play, performance, and award ceremony they attended faithfully.

They were the type of couple that everyone knew was going to last past their school years. How could they not? Louis without Harry seemed like the moon without the tide.

So, when Louis turned up in Harry’s bedroom doorway, tears streaming down his cheeks and a shaky hand clasping an acceptance letter to his dream school in London, Harry had just hugged him and cuddled him into his chest.

That summer was a blur of way too many shopping trips and nights spent out under the stars, pointing out the same constellations they’d grown up under. Harry and Louis both refused to acknowledge what the end of the summer meant, blissfully carrying backpacks between their two houses, valiantly trying to meld into one person. Where Harry went, Louis followed. Louis spent more days than he cared to admit holed up in a booth in their favorite diner, across the street from where Harry worked.

No one seemed to believe that Louis was really leaving, least of all Harry and Louis.

Until Louis showed up at Harry’s the night before he left.

Harry had simply tangled their fingers together, pulling Louis up the stairs and into his bedroom, kicking the door shut.

“I don’t want you to go, Lou,” Louis brought their mouths together, savoring the taste of Harry.

“I have to go, Harry. You know I do,” Louis whispered, reached up and tangled his hand into Harry’s curls. “I can’t stay here forever. This was never my plan. You knew that.” Harry nodded quickly, eyes squeezed shut and tears falling more quickly than either of them would admit.

When Louis kissed Harry again, he tasted salty tears mixed in with the strawberry Chapstick Harry had taken to wearing after he had stumbled across it in a petrol station one night at three in the morning. They both heard the front door shut quietly and Harry took Louis’ chin in his hand, forcing Louis to look in his eyes.

Between one blink and another, Harry was laying Louis down, lovingly kissing down his body and they were moving together. Practiced and easy in a way they had no right to be at 18 years old, they pressed bruising kisses into each other’s throats, etching themselves into the other’s body and searing their memories together into their brains.

“I love you so much,” Louis whispered, tucking a curl behind Harry’s ear. Harry leaned over and pressed a kiss to Louis’s forehead.

“I love you too, you know that.”

“I can’t believe I’m really leaving tomorrow.” Louis laughed quietly, incredulous

“Lou, our mums are best friends. They’ve been best friends as long as we have.”

“Harry-”

“No, Lou. I don’t want our mums to pick sides just because you’re leaving, okay? You know I love you more than is probably healthy. I love you more than a sunset after a storm and the cheap alcohol we snuck before we were legal. I just can’t leave this place, you know that. You were always the dreamer between the pair of us. You need to leave here, I get that.” Harry stopped abruptly and squeezed his eyes shut again, a few tears racing across his face towards the pillow. “Just please don’t expect me to like it,” Harry whispered. Louis whimpered and pulled Harry to his chest, winding a leg between Harrys’. “I was never the kind to run away, Lou. That was always you. You would hide in the clearing behind my house when your mum got angry at you and find a way to get away when we fought. That’s just who you are.” Louis felt Harry take a shaky breath before he continued. “That’s just not me Lou. I’ve had the same lunch order since I was fifteen and ever since I started driving us to school, we’ve stopped at the same gas station every day for a cup of coffee.”

Harry started tracing shapes on Louis’s skin, the light drags of his finger had left goosebumps in its wake.

“I always knew I’d be fine here for the rest of my life. It was more about convincing you that you could stay here too.” Harry admitted into Louis’s chest, words muffled by the press of his lips against the skin of Louis’ collarbones. Louis sucked in a breath and let a few more tears leave his eyes, racing down his face towards where Harry had his hand buried in Louis’s hair.

Between breaths, they had slipped into sleep. Louis woke before Harry the next morning and he just let himself absorb this last morning with the boy he loves. The quiet breaths Harry lets out and the soft twitch of his eyelids as he dreamt. The warm summer morning light filtered in from Harry’s window and turned the curls scattered about Harry’s forehead into a golden halo.

Harry snuffled in his sleep and burrowed deeper into Louis’s chest, his grip on Louis tightening. Louis gently ran his fingers through Harry’s hair and Harry unconsciously leaned into the touch, preening even in his dreams.

Louis’s alarm went off at half-past eight and Harry jolted awake, wrapping his arms tighter around Louis and not letting him up for a whole ten more minutes.

“Harry, we need to get up,” Louis whispered, running his hands up and down Harry’s back.

“If we don’t get up, you don’t leave,” Harry whispered back, etching another mark into Louis’s collarbones.

“I have to leave, Hazza. You know I do,” Louis reminds quietly, his voice thick. Harry sat up eventually, the sheets pooled around his waist and his eyes wet. Harry looked beautiful like that, reminders of Louis’s love bruising his skin, the warm summer light turning his skin golden and soft, the sleep of the previous night still evident in his eyes.

“I hate this,” Harry stated plainly.

“I do too,” Louis sat up as well to take Harry’s face in his hands and kiss him, Morning breath be damned. They dress in companionable silence, though the tension in the air was chokingly thick. Louis swung his backpack up onto a shoulder and descended the stairs, Harry following him quietly.

Before Louis opened Harry’s front door, he pulled Harry to him and wound his hands deep in Harry’s hair, the same way he’d done since Year 9 on Christmas Eve. Harry’s hands found their way to the dip in Louis’s waist, familiar after years of placement there.

“I love you,” Louis breathed into the kiss, pulling away and opening the door before stepping out into the late summer air. They crossed the road hand in hand and Harry waited while Louis shoved his backpack into the passenger seat of his car before pulling him into Louis’s house where their families were waiting for them.

Louis’s mum was already crying as soon as they stepped through the door and after Louis quickly ate his last breakfast at home, the whole of the two families trooped out to the driveway where everyone took turns hugging and kissing Louis goodbye with whispered advice in his ear and quickly concealed tears.

When it was Harry’s turn, neither of them was ready. They reached for each other at the same time, pulling the other to themselves in equal measure. The hug was tight enough that it felt like they couldn’t breathe but the tighter they held on, the easier it was to think that it was just the hug that was painful, not their breaking hearts.

“I love you more than a sunset after a storm,” Harry whispers.

“More than the cheap alcohol we stole before we were legal,” Louis whispers back, echoing Harry’s words from last night. Harry choked out a cry at hearing his own words repeated back to him. “I’ll always love you best, Hazza. You’re probably the love of my life.” This time, Harry really cried, pulling away from Louis’s shoulder and crushing their mouths together. Louis kissed him back as he tried to pour every ounce of his love for Harry into the kiss.

They pulled apart reluctantly and Louis wiped Harry’s tears from under his eyes, tenderly kissing each of his eyes, his forehead, and his nose before planting another kiss on Harry’s lips. “I love you so much, baby.” Louis pressed their foreheads together, both of them letting a few more tears out.

Louis eventually pulled away, tangling his fingers with Harry’s and turning to his family to say the last goodbyes. They never let go of each other through the whole thing, clinging tighter as the time Louis would actually have to get in the car and leave crept closer.

When they let go of each other when Louis had to shut the car door behind him, Harry felt like a limb had been severed from him. ‘I love you’ he mouths to Louis through the glass, wiping his tears with the back of his hand.

‘I love you’ Louis mouths back, then he puts the car in gear and backs out of the driveway, and turns down the street. The collection of people in the driveway waved until the car was out of sight.

Anne pulled Harry in for a hug and he cried into her shoulder, fully unashamed of how badly his heart was hurting. Jay joined their hug and they held him until he stopped crying, face rubbed raw from tears and eyes puffy and sore. “He’ll be back,” Anne soothed, rubbing his back.

“He won’t be mine when he is though.” Harry whimpered and he let his mum pull him back to his house.

Harry passed the next few weeks by throwing himself into work, taking extra shifts, and even taking a second job when the first one didn’t prove enough of a distraction. He barely slept and relied on more coffee and espresso than was healthy, but it didn’t really matter to him.

“Mum?” Harry asked one morning as the sun was rising in late September, light just beginning to filter into the kitchen. They both clutched mugs of hot tea between their hands and leaned against the kitchen worktop.

“Yeah, baby?”

“Do you think I made a mistake?” Harry questions quietly, blowing on his tea gently.

“With what?”

“Letting him go.” It sounded so final to Harry’s ears so early in the morning.

“Baby, you know Louis wanted to get out of this town. He’s wanted nothing more than to see more than this corner of the world, you know that. Now, do I think that you should have gone with him? I can’t answer that for you. But you’ve been killing yourself trying to distract yourself from him leaving. That tells me a lot.” Harry raised his eyebrows and took a sip of his tea as if to say, ‘go on’. “You and Louis have been inseparable ever since we moved into this house. Practically became one person at times. So, when you came to me and told me that you and Louis were together, it really didn’t surprise me at all. Seemed like a natural progression to me. This? This whole, ‘we’re going to break up when Louis goes off to uni’, that always felt so unnatural to me. You and Louis are like puzzle pieces, love. You fit each other, almost to a scary degree sometimes. So, I don’t think you made a mistake in letting him go. I think your mistake was not fighting to stay together while you were apart. You might not be ready to leave this town yet, but you were always ready for Louis.” His mom shrugged, squeezed his shoulder, and left the kitchen to get ready for work.

Harry was reeling, mind going a mile a minute as he tried to absorb his mother’s words. He found his feet moving of their own accord, up the stairs and past the bed where his stepfather was still sleeping. He slipped quietly into the bathroom where Anne was putting on her makeup. “Is it crazy if I go after him?” Harry asks, kicking his toe against the bathroom floor.

“I’ve been waiting for you to go after him since the minute he left the driveway, love. I was surprised you didn’t jump in the car and take off after him.” Anne tells him, looking at him through the mirror.

“I’m going to go after him, mum. I love him too much not to.” His mom just nodded and turned to hug him, giving his back a soothing rub as she let him go.

“Text me when you get there, okay baby? Make sure you call your bosses, let them know what’s happening.” Harry nodded and took his leave, shoving shoes on and driving out to see both of his bosses. Their town was a small one and Harry and Louis had been together forever and fairly well known around town, so his bosses were fairly understanding when Harry handed in his two weeks’ notice.

The sun was well and truly up when Harry finally made it back to his house. He threw about a weeks’ worth of clothes in a duffel bag and collected his toiletries from the bathroom, throwing them in on top of his clothes. Harry dropped the bag at the front door and went to see his parents in the kitchen.

“I’ll text you when I get there, yeah?” Anne had obviously filled Robin in while Harry had been out so they both smiled fondly at him and told him to drive carefully. Harry picked up his bag and swung the door open, stepping out of the door, eyes cast down. A car door shutting tore his attention from his front porch steps.

“Going somewhere?” Louis asked, the shake of his voice giving his nerves away.

“Louis,” Harry breathed, dropping the bag on the porch and running down to the car, crushing Louis to his chest. “What are you doing here?” Harry asked when Louis wrapped his arms around Harry.

“Well, I made a proper ass of myself not taking you with me when I left the first time.” The lilt of Louis’s voice was like music to Harry’s ears and he burst into tears. Louis pulled away from the hug and pulled Harry into a salty, teary kiss. “I love you too much to let you go.”

“I love you so much,” Harry whispered, thumbs rubbing circles into Louis’s cheekbones.

“Enough to come with me?” He asked, biting his lip.

Harry leaned in and reconnected their lips before parting just enough to say “Definitely. I love you more than our hometown.”

Louis grinned and kissed him again, tangling his hands in Harry’s hair. “Love you more than anything else, baby.”

“Even sunsets after storms, cheap alcohol, or our hometown?” Harry asked, pressing his forehead against Louis’s.

“More than all those things combined, love.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is the [rebloggable fic post](https://local-troubled-writer.tumblr.com/post/641160956568846336/more-than-my-hometown-by-local-troubled-writer)! If you liked it, please share it! Many thanks, x.


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